Family of the Past, Family of the Present
by 2028
Summary: Tag to 7.7 After Steve returns from Morocco, he opens the box his mother left in the floor.


Tag to Ka Makuahine A Me Ke Keikikane (7.7)

I own nothing from this franchise. In my lifetime, I had purchased several books and you know clothes.

Okay, I have not figured why my story posted in all code, but hopefully this version is better. Thanks for letting me know.

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9...0...2..6...8

The door of the safe swung open, dust cracking along a seam that had remained hidden in the floor for years.

My parents and their freakin lock boxes.

Steven had waited until the next morning to investigate his mother's claim about her answers in the safe in his floor for years without his knowledge. Now he sat on the floor of the office, cross legged, feeling very much like a little kid opening a treasure chest. Not sure what to expect, the top photo, a photo of his whole family taken a couple months before everything went to hell, still surprised him. After all these years, Steve still could not figure his mother's whims.

Under the photo were maps and transcripts and reports, but suddenly Steve did not care about that. His eyes kept flicking back to the photo and his mind came flashing back to the day was it taken. His whole family had packed up and spend the day wandering around the island, doing errands. It was one of the rare times that they had all been together. Nothing special happened except it was one of the most relaxed days Steve could remember from his childhood. Maybe his parents had a tinkling of the separation to come and they wanted to pack in the memories, but if they did, they did not give it away. He and Mary trailed behind their parents at what seemed like hundreds of stores, but for some reason the day had a light feel to it. Everyone made the right jokes and the sun shone down on them and they rode with the windows open and arguing, laughing as much as they insulted each other. He remembered thinking that these were the best times. The times no one meant to remembered but for whatever reason were brought up again and again, concreting themselves, in one form or another, in their memories, waiting until the day they needed them most, reminding him life had sun, life had smiles, life had happiness.

A knock at the door broke Steve out of his reverie and he called

"Come in, Danny".

Because who else could be?

Danny, his partner, his friend, the annoying man, who somehow had his back from all the way across the country. Danny had, of course, come at the earliest opportunity to check on Steve.

Hearing Danny reach the study and after listening to him groan his way all the way to the floor, Steve said

"My mother left me a lock box. Another freakin' lock box".

"Tool box, lock box"

"I know. I don't think my parents realize. I do not care about the mission. I do not care about the explanations. My family got ripped apart when I was fifteen. I just wanted them".

Steve and Danny had several conversations along these lines, growing closer every time something came up and they talked through it. Danny first knew all the emotional baggage he carried before he trusted the rest of their team with it. He did not know how this started, how a man who half the time he could barely stand had crept so far into his life, but somehow Danny had and Steve as hell was not going to stop the tradition now.

"I take it the mission went okay?"

"Yea, yea. It was fine. Mom tackled me. Almost got shot. Catherine met Lyne. I had to fly off to some foreign country to drag part of my ohana out of another mess. Nothing new. Expect, oh, Lynne accidentally mentioned to Catherine about my pending marriage proposal".

"As if that was not awkward enough".

"Thanks Danny" Steve said sarcastically.

They sat there for a while, Steve fumbling with the family photo and Danny respectfully, but curiously digging through the rest of the material in the box, when he pulled out a file and nudged it into Steve's hand.

"I did not know she had a copy of this".

In his hand, Steve was holding a copy of a letter he had written to his father one of the first times he was deployed. He had told him all about his team members and provided a semi detailed account of the first time he met Catherine.

"She would have said yes, you know. She told me".

"Steve"

"Don't worry about it Danny".

"You forgive more easily than almost anyone I know. You hold grudges in people's absence, but when you look them in the face, you can not stay mad too save your life".

"Is that an insult or a compliment?"

"Not sure".

"You could try it sometime"

"Oh, no, I am much too cynical for it, all that forgive and forget business. I am not buying what they are selling".

"Nice Danno".

"What am I here for?"


End file.
